Touring

Touring

Rambling and randonneuring

As the number of bicycles increased during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Australians took up touring, rambling from town to town on leisurely longer rides. Cycle touring declined in popularity after the Second World War, as many people started travelling in cars. By the 1980s, however, long-distance recreational rides made a comeback through mass participation events and randonneuring, a non-competitive sport in which cyclists aim to complete a set course within a specified time limit.

Exhibition highlights

Freewheeling features riders including Reima Miezitis, who toured around Tasmania on her bike in the 1950s and 1960s, and randonneur Greg Cunningham, who has covered thousands of kilometres on his bike in Australia and overseas since the 1990s.

Reima Miezitis and her brother restored this bicycle in 1945, adding Malvern Star wheels, painting the frame and replating the chrome finish on the handlebars. At the age of 15, Miezitis began riding it most days to Hobart Technical College from her home at Moonah, a journey of some seven kilometres. After she completed her studies, Miezitis took her bike on the train to work so she could ride regularly at lunchtime. From her early 20s, she rode it on day trips around Hobart, and took longer tours to Bruny Island to go riding for the weekend.

Modified Roadmaster bicycle belonging to Reima Miezitis, about 1945. Miezitis and her brother restored the bike, which Reima later rode to technical college and on weekend tours. National Museum of Australia. Photo: Jason McCarthy.

Greg Cunningham has spent decades riding and exploring the world by bicycle. He first developed his taste for long-distance riding while living in London in the early 1990s, a base for completing numerous tours around Britain, through Europe and Mexico. He returned to Australia in 1993, and since then, has ridden thousands of kilometres each year on cycling trips, randonnées (designated long-distance rides) and just commuting to work.

Since the early 1990s, Greg Cunningham has used these panniers on trips in Australia and overseas, including tours of the Canberra region, south-eastern Queensland, Gippsland in Victoria, and a three-week trip from Brisbane to Canberra. From his home in Canberra, Cunningham also organised a popular series of day rides known as ‘Long Riders’, in conjunction with the Australian Capital Territory bicycle advocacy group Pedal Power.

Paris–Brest–Paris Audax jersey (Australian edition), 2003–07, worn by Greg Cunningham during the prestigious 1200-kilometre return ride between Paris and Brest in western France. On loan from Greg Cunningham. Photo: George Serras.

Riders stretch out along the Great Ocean Road near Port Campbell during the Great Victorian Bike Ride, 2009. The annual Great Victorian Bike Ride, first run in 1984, offers riders a nine-day journey around different parts of the state. In 2004, more than 8000 riders took part, making it one of the world’s largest fully supported bike rides. Courtesy: The Bicycle Network.

Other popular mass-participation long-distance rides include Victoria’s Around the Bay in a Day and Alpine Classic, and the Sydney to the Gong ride in New South Wales.